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“Shit, shit, shit,” I cursed and moved quickly down the hall, shouldering the bedroom door and gripping the rumpled bed sheets for purchase. I pulled, dragging the mattress off the frame so fast, it knocked over the lamp on the bedside table and shattered. I froze at the abrasive sound, waiting for Wayne to storm in.

“He’s gone,” I muttered to myself as I moved to the exposed slats, grabbed the keys, and shoved Dad’s polaroid in my pocket before rushing back out into the hall and pushing the basement door open so fast, it slammed against the wall. “He’s gone!” I called out breathlessly as I hurried down the stairs, the chain scraping and clattering behind me with every step. Jackson lifted his head slightly at the sound, his body still strung tight where he knelt on the concrete floor.

“Fuck,” he muttered, relief and disbelief tangled together in the word. I dropped beside him immediately, barely feeling the cold of the floor beneath my knees.

“We’re really getting out of here,” I said, almost laughing as it came out, like my body didn’t know what emotion to settle on. His eyes were glassy with tears, and one was almost swollen shut, but he was smiling too, like he couldn’t quite believe I was real, or the keys, or any of it.

“Okay, let's do this,” I whispered.

Carefully, I shifted closer, kneeling above him as I guided his wrists into my hands. The metal cuffs bit into his skin as I turned them, exposing the lock and his marred flesh. His head leaned forward, resting against my stomach as I pushed the key and turned it, saying a silent prayer to any god who could’ve been listening.

Click.

The clasp opened, and Jackson’s arms dropped instantly to his sides, like they’d been waiting for permission to fall apart. “Oh, fuck,” he groaned, his voice cracking. “That hurts.” I didn’t hesitate. I dropped the keys onto the concrete and immediately took his arm, rubbing it gently, trying to coax life back into it. “I can’t feel anything,” he muttered, flexing his fingers weakly as the pain started to creep in.

I knew the feeling well.

“It’s like pins and needles everywhere.”

“I know. I’ve got you,” I said quickly, moving to his other arm, massaging carefully. “Just breathe. It’ll come back.” He winced, shaking out his hands, but he was still laughing under his breath.

“We’re actually doing this,” he whispered. I nodded, swallowing hard as I kept my hands moving over his arms, trying to ease the numbness away.

“I know,” I said softly, squeezing his hand gently while rubbing slow circles along his forearm with my other.

“I missed this,” he admitted quietly, slightly tightening his fingers around mine.

“Me too,” I whispered. I hesitated, then lifted his hand carefully, like it might break if I held it wrong. I pressed a slow kiss to the back of it and closed my eyes for a second, breathing him in like I was trying to remember something I’d been forced to forget. “Let’s get out of here,” I said before I shifted, pulling my leg up and resting it carefully in my lap as I grabbed the keys from the floor. My hands trembled as I found the cuff around my ankle, twisting it into position. I glanced up at Jackson and smiled as I pushed the key into the lock and…

It didn’t turn.

I looked back down, my smile freezing on my lips as I pulled the key out before trying the second one and…it still didn't turn. I could barely hear over the roar in my ears as Jackson leaned forward, his hand tightening weakly around my ankle like he could will it open.

“Try the other one,” he murmured.

I nodded, barely hearing him. I pushed the key into the lock and…it didn't turn. “It’s not working,” I said, my voice cracking as panic started to climb up my throat. I jammed the key in again, harder this time, twisting with everything I had until the metal bit into my skin.

“Let me try,” he urged as he pulled my foot into his lap. I handed him the keys with shaking fingers and watched through blurry vision as he struggled to turn it too. “No,” he muttered under his breath, adjusting his grip, trying another angle. “Come on…”

“Jackson?” I whispered, tears blurring my vision, a gut-wrenching pain building in my chest.

His hands stilled for half a second before he looked at me. And I saw it then, under the determination, under the desperation.

Fear.

“They don’t fit.” A bead of sweat slid down from his hairline, tracing slowly down his temple and falling onto my shin while my chest tightened painfully as I tried to breathe through it. “They’re the wrong keys.”

”They can't be, I…” I trailed off, the words fading from my lips as a memory of Wayne locking the clasp for the first time flashed in my mind.

“If you even try to take this off, there will be hell to pay,” he promised as he grabbed my ankle and clasped the metal around it, the chain clanging as he locked it in place.

That had been a small silver key.

These keys were all bronze.

My breath hitched violently as the realisation crashed into me. “Oh my God…” I whispered, the words barely forming. “They’re the wrong keys,” I whispered, my heart logged in my throat. “They’re the wrong…we-we don’t have time to look for them. You-you…you have to go without me.”

His grip tightened around my ankle. “No,” he said immediately, shaking his head as he shoved the key back into the lock, forcing it like he could make it fit through sheer will. “No, I’m not going anywhere without you.”